Hey all...I was thinkin....am I a hypocrite...I work at a haunted house, I'm darn good at what I do....and I've never even been through a haunted attraction....I dont even believe i could get through it.....but I want to try without looking like a total moron...any tips bruddahs?

I haven't walked through a haunted attraction as "the customer" in a good many years. Which is kinda ironic considering I've been taking part in the haunt scene since 2005. The main reason I haven't gone out and experienced other attractions is, well, simply because I'm so busy with the one I'm in now. "Wanna check out Dixie Caverns' haunt and get scared?" "Nope, can't, I'm doing some scaring of my own."

Hopefully, I'll find the time to get out and visit a couple haunts this October. The idea of even getting spooked in one, especially now, has always sorta bugged me. I mean, I work in a haunt! Scaring people is my forte! But then I look at it this way: If what they're delivering is enough to scare me, then they're doing something right. Good job to them I say.

So no, I wouldn't call you a hypocrite. I'd say the situation is a bit ironic....Okay, perhaps more than a bit. But it's really nothing to be ashamed of.

I know a few people who dress up as the thing that they are almost phobic/scared of!?
They just have to stay away from those mirrors or it's all over for them!
Maybe by assuming the costume's idenity they think they are buying a pass from the monster itself scaring them?
They are in effect joining the monster's "club"?
"They won't think to scare one of their own kind."
Sort of monster camoflauge, become one and vanish within their ranks, finding safety with these powerful forces?

Yes, maybe reading this someone has guessed my costume and what I am afraid of?
I am afraid of people who wear clothes!
They do seem to do the majority of the crime, don't they?
When someone is dressed,..they are capable of a n y t h i n g !!!
There is a new phobia for someone to worry about.

Not in my eyes, you're not. I'm a scarer, but make a lousy scare-ee...

Last time I was in a haunted house (that I didn't have some hand in) I freaked out and threw a friend's brother (who was a teenager and an actor in the house) up against a mirrored maze and seriously hurt him. I was about 11 at the time. I'm now almost 40.

Here's my theory. I'm a chickenshit at heart. So are my kids. But our "level of control" is making props. We've started them out young, and while I love me some zombie movies and other horror type flicks, if I were to see it in real life, I'd certainly need a change of under garments.

BUT...

If I'm in creation mode, I'm good to go. I can think up and create the goriest of scenes without blinking an eye. And my kids are even better at the brainstorming and creating than I am (They're 8 and 11 year old girls. My oldest daughter is my avatar).

I was a tourist in an active haunt run by others was maybe 32 years ago.
I didn't get "scared" but I did get pissed off!
The room was in the low-ceiling of an old two-story house, a small room.
There were three haunt/actors in the room and three in my group of JC's from just 8 miles away from this place, we were checking out their haunt, all friendly, not really competitive at all.
This was The Mad doctor's scene, they all had on masks and strange baggy clothing. One actor was standing maybe 8 to 9 feet away from me when all the lights went out in that room (as they planned it)
"Whump!" the lights were restored. There sticking into the wall next to my head was the same ax the "Doctor" had just been playing with a second before the room went dark!
Gee! No margin for error in this prank now was there?
What if I had moved after the room went dark? I would only have had to moved slightly to then recieve my reward of an ax hitting my head rather solidly .
The smell of beer was overpowering, in the room and coming from out of their masks, a little basketball was happening too, bobbing and weaving.
The next year they no longer had the use of this house, the basement was filled with empty beer cans and nobody wanted to clean it up.
The bulldozer got that job.
I did get my revenge, I farted in the middle of their dark maze not long after the Mad Doctor room, it was extremely terrible, an eye-burner smell! (Maybe THAT was why the house was torn down?)
Or maybe my gas ate the nails in the entire house up. Causing prematurely rusting excessively?

For instance you may think that in a scene when someone gets hacked up if you had a water gun hidden and give the guests a little spray to make them think it is blood will scare them. Well from a setup point of view you may think that is a great idea.
Now expereince that as a guest and you will be like "dude that was lame, it is cold and now I am wet. Jerk!"

Plus you will see how others do their lighting, sound, acting, story archs, etc. You can then use some things to add to your haunt/acting, or take away if you see they are really lame.

i assume it would be best to go through my haunt first. I mean, I built that place, i know where every little thing is in that house...if I can't make it through that everything else is out of the question right? lol

I dont think I've been through a haunted house/trail in 7 years!..since I started acting in the one i'm at now. I really dont think I could make it through one! They freak me out but they are great to work in! =]]